Awesome! StartMenu8 from IObit

[Kaido]

Link:

http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php

1. Free
2. Adds normal start menu icon
3. Ability to skip Metro GUI & boot directly to desktop
4. Ability to disable hot corners

Screenshot of the main settings page:

http://i.imgur.com/gvmHJzZ.jpg

Using it in my VM right now, works super awesome! Finally a start menu replacement I actually like!

[Anubis]

marked.

i picked up win8 on neweggs deal, this will be useful whenever i get around to installing it

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by Anubis

marked.

i picked up win8 on neweggs deal, this will be useful whenever i get around to installing it

Other than that, it's pretty similar to Windows 7. Still building my install checklist, but -

IObit StartMenu8 (defaults, plus disable hot corners)
IE default homepage (google.com)
Disable sounds & startup sound
Disable UAC
Disable Action Center messages
Power options
Never check for updates

My next crop of Windows 8 laptops are showing up in a couple weeks, so I'm actually looking forward to getting them setup now that I have a nice GUI tool to fix my complaints!

[bibletoter]

These options ought to have been stock in Win8.

[fritzfield]

Thanks for the link. Do these replacement programs use a lot of system resources or cause stability issues?

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by fritzfield

Thanks for the link. Do these replacement programs use a lot of system resources or cause stability issues?

Mine's running fine in my test VM, no crashes or anything fwiw.

[kn51]

So how does this compare against Start8 and StartIsBack?

Not that $5 or $3 is going to break the bank but free is free and on re-installs becomes simpler not having to look for a key.

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by kn51

So how does this compare against Start8 and StartIsBack?

Not that $5 or $3 is going to break the bank but free is free and on re-installs becomes simpler not having to look for a key.

Out of all the ones I've tried, I like this one the best. It looks like a stock part of Windows 8. Nice graphics, lets you boot directly to the desktop, and lets you turn off hot corners. At first blush, this makes me comfortable enough with Windows 8 to deploy it in a corporate environment, because you don't have to train people on a new interface. I give it

[kn51]

Thanks. I've been testing 8 on my own system here at work out of a few hundred. Tried the alternatives to make it feel like 7 as much as possible. Only real issues I've spotted are kicking back to metro on the odd file types.

Also having issue with GPOs not applying. Not sure if I need to do a schema update to my 2008 domain. Anyways, that question is beyond the scope of this thread.

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by kn51

Thanks. I've been testing 8 on my own system here at work out of a few hundred. Tried the alternatives to make it feel like 7 as much as possible. Only real issues I've spotted are kicking back to metro on the odd file types.

Also having issue with GPOs not applying. Not sure if I need to do a schema update to my 2008 domain. Anyways, that question is beyond the scope of this thread.

Yeah, I've even had local stuff not stick, like viewing the Control Panel as small icons. Pops right back to the default view. A few more service packs and we'll get there

[sm625]

Originally Posted by kn51

Tried the alternatives to make it feel like 7 as much as possible. Only real issues I've spotted are kicking back to metro on the odd file types.

Wow that sounds scary. How does that work?

[kn51]

Originally Posted by sm625

Wow that sounds scary. How does that work?

Well, hard to explain. Guess the behavior is different is how I would describe it. Say you have a file you know is a text file but has an extension of .cfg or whatever that you want to open in Notepad. Instead of the old behavior of selecting notepad from the list of apps the first option is to look at the app store. Underneath is a link for the old selections. Not a big deal, but click the wrong thing and you are back in Metro.

Just somewhat of a thought in regards to foolproofing the thing.

[JBT]

Tried it out last night, so far so good. thanks!

[Steltek]

When I installed it, it disabled Win8's built-in security software and installed IOBits' own stuff (including a "Advanced Systemcare browser protection" addon in IE). I don't particularly care much for this as this was the company that got caught a few years ago using Malwarebytes' malware signatures in their security software.

[JBT]

I saw that during the install. I chose to not install that.

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by fritzfield

Thanks for the link. Do these replacement programs use a lot of system resources or cause stability issues?

This lags a bit on opening sometimes but other than that make Win8 nearly usable.

[Kaido]

Originally Posted by WelshBloke

This lags a bit on opening sometimes but other than that make Win8 nearly usable.

Couple more tricks:

1. Disable UAC
2. Disable enableLUA key to 0 (regedit) via:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Policies\System\

That turns off the "you need to be an admin" popup even when you ARE an admin and have already disabled UAC. Also disabling updates in turn disables automatic restarts. Still hoping to find a better cure for that, because I'd like it to run updates without EVER automatically rebooting, period, the end.

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by Kaido

Couple more tricks:

1. Disable UAC
2. Disable enableLUA key to 0 (regedit) via:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Policies\System\

That turns off the "you need to be an admin" popup even when you ARE an admin and have already disabled UAC. Also disabling updates in turn disables automatic restarts. Still hoping to find a better cure for that, because I'd like it to run updates without EVER automatically rebooting, period, the end.

I don't mind it rebooting, I do mind it just sitting at a black screen for random amounts of time during the reboot. That's just annoying.

[SheHateMe]

Originally Posted by kn51

Well, hard to explain. Guess the behavior is different is how I would describe it. Say you have a file you know is a text file but has an extension of .cfg or whatever that you want to open in Notepad. Instead of the old behavior of selecting notepad from the list of apps the first option is to look at the app store. Underneath is a link for the old selections. Not a big deal, but click the wrong thing and you are back in Metro.

Just somewhat of a thought in regards to foolproofing the thing.

Ive never experienced this. It lets me choose what to edit with. I've never had to go to the app store for anything.

Is there a specific situation where this will happen?

[zokudu]

Originally Posted by SheHateMe

Ive never experienced this. It lets me choose what to edit with. I've never had to go to the app store for anything.

Is there a specific situation where this will happen?

He is saying if you accidentally hit to go to the app store instead of selectingan installed program.